Month: May 2022

Enlarge / This EV is called the Nissan Sakura, and it goes on sale in Japan this year for about $14,000, proving that automakers can make small and affordable EVs. (credit: Nissan)

You don’t have to dig far into the comments of just about any article we write about new cars to find complaints about the ever-growing size and cost of those new cars. Automakers are convinced that size sells in the US market, particularly when it comes to new electric vehicles. But there is a different way, as both Europe and Japan have shown.

For example, Autocar reported on Tuesday that Volkswagen will build a small EV called the ID.1 that will sell for around $18,000 (17,000 euros). Due to reach the market in 2025, this diminutive EV will use a cut-down version of VW’s MEB platform (as used in the US-market ID.4 crossover, among others) and is expected to have a WLTP range of about 250 miles (400 km) thanks to a 57 kWh battery pack.

In fact, Europeans will be somewhat spoiled for choice since the same factory in Spain will also produce versions of the ID.1 for the Cupra and Seat brands.

Enlarge / Microsoft will allow third-party apps to bundle their own widgets starting later this year. (credit: Microsoft)

When Windows 11 did away with support for Live Tiles, Microsoft attempted to relocate some of that quick, glance-able information into a new Widgets menu that lives in the taskbar alongside the Start and search menus. Our main issue with widgets in our Windows 11 review was that they were limited to Microsoft’s apps and services, with no mechanism for third parties to develop their own widgets.

That will change later this year, according to an announcement made at Microsoft’s Build developer conference. Third parties will be able to develop their own Windows 11 widgets “beginning later this year.” This suggests that it will be among the tweaks and new features coming for Windows 11 22H2, the operating system’s first big yearly update.

Widgets can be packaged as companions for traditional Win32 apps and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), and they’ll use the Adaptive Cards platform that Microsoft created to enable cross-platform widgets and UI previews.

Enlarge / Tom Cruise, still crazy after all these years. (credit: Skydance Productions)

As I walked out of my review screening of Top Gun: Maverick, coming down from its adrenaline-filled finale, a small part of my brain began looking for dents in the film’s armor. Maybe it’s the critic in me, but my thoughts didn’t need long to land on stuff from the original film—a plot point, a stylistic choice, a particular character—that didn’t return this time.

I chewed on those thoughts for a second, but before I could lose myself in cataloging them at length, a sensation came over me. It landed like a massive G-force blast, as if I were a jet fighter pilot attempting a seemingly impossible climb: one of great satisfaction with this sequel and admiration that this film pulled off the impossible feat of adhering to the old while doing something new.

Returning to old haunts. (credit: Skydance Productions)

The series’ predilection for steering military theater toward Hollywood-style silliness is arguably more tolerable, as tempered by a savvy script and cutting-edge stunt work. The character development hits important notes for both Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and the people in his high-speed orbit, and the film’s focused supporting cast mostly hits the mark.

Enlarge / Tesla cars in a lot at the company’s factory in Fremont, California. (credit: Getty Images | Justin Sullivan)

Tesla can’t force a woman who sued the company over sexual harassment into arbitration, a judge ruled on Monday.

Jessica Barraza sued Tesla in November 2021 in Alameda County Superior Court in California, alleging that she and other women working in the carmaker’s Fremont factory were subjected to “nightmarish conditions of rampant sexual harassment.” The Tesla factory “resembles a crude, archaic construction site or frat house,” with women enduring sexual comments, propositions, and inappropriate touching, the lawsuit said.

Barraza also alleged Tesla retaliated against her after she complained about sexual harassment and that she was “denied certain privileges and benefits that were afforded to women who did not object to supervisors’ sexual advances and flirtations.” Many more details are in our coverage of the lawsuit.